


Tale of a Dragon

by Joel7th



Category: Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dragon Hybrids, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-03-27 20:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13888542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joel7th/pseuds/Joel7th
Summary: He was a dragon that wasn’t a dragon. A freak in the form of another species mixed with dragon traits. An abomination. A subject of shame and loathing. A total outcast. Naturally, there would come a day when his own mother would banish him from her den for eternity.Entirely on his own, the young dragon hybrid met one of the humans who had been hunting his kind for gold and treasure since forever. However, this human seemed too small, too fragile that it probably posed no threat to him. It was a child.An odd child.





	1. Part 1

Siegfried was, by his kin’s description, a total failure of a dragon.

From the moment he broke his eggshell to arrive in this world, Siegfried had been an oddball, pun somewhat intended, considering how he had looked a bit like a scaly ball. His mother had laid nine eggs at that time, and while the other eggs had turned out perfectly fine – beautiful baby dragons with colors varying from grey and dark green to crimson, Siegfried’s egg had been an exception. Not only had his egg hatched several days later than schedule, the infant dragon had come out in a form that wasn’t exactly draconic: while he’d had the standard traits of his kind – curved horns, wings and a long tail covered in scales – the rest had belonged to another species. How such a bizarre thing could have happened had been beyond everyone; still, to all of them it could have been nothing more than a bad omen. Siegfried’s skin had been pink and smooth, with only a couple scaly patches littering his shoulders, back and thighs. And while the majority of dragons were hairless, Siegfried had been born with a head of long silver mane. The moment the eggshell cracked and he emerged from within, his wide turquoise eyes eagerly drinking the scene around and his infant brain absorbing the overwhelming information like a sponge, his dragon kin gathering in anticipation to welcome their newest member had panicked and shrieked. His eyes had distinguished his own mother from the rest easily enough as it was every baby dragon’s instinct, and when his gaze landed on her, keen to imprint on her image, he had only found disappointment and wrath vivid on her features. It had scared him so badly all he had wanted was crawl back into his broken egg and never face the world – mostly his mother – again. Hell hath no fury like a dragon’s scorn, his young brain had understood that much. The fear that his own mother would devour him had been palpable.

In the end, his mother hadn’t chewed him up, much to Siegfried’s relief. Yet she had not paid him a morsel of her attention either. While she had always made sure his older siblings would go to sleep with a full belly, Siegfried had been left to pick up the scraps, hunger constantly gnawing the inside of his stomach. She had turned a blind eye to his siblings bullying him on a daily basis while Siegfried, thin and malnourished and only part-dragon, had had no way to defend himself. Growing up, he had gradually learned that the reason for his abnormal appearance had been the curse of some human sorcerer. Humans were a weak and nasty species and amongst them, sorcerers were the nastiest. The fool had traveled far and wide to his mother’s lair to slay her because apparently slaying a fearsome dragon was the quickest and surest way to gain fame and fortune. Before being barbecued and never spoken of again, the sorcerer had laid a curse on her, which his mother had not paid any mind to until the birth of a half-dragon, half-human hybrid from one of her eggs. Such a weak, obscure curse yet one so sinister; she had made a fatal mistake by underestimating the wicked nature of the human species.

However, Siegfried’s appearance had not been the only reason for his kin to look at him and snarl. Not only had he looked very human, he had been acting very much like one, his draconic characters suppressed to maximum. In the beginning, a couple of his relatives had pitied the youngling neglected by his own mother, and they had taken it upon themselves to teach him some basic skills, like how to magnify his flame and roast the enemies – and food – the quickest or how to build his own lair, how to sniff out the gold in the earth, accumulate his treasure and guard it against the prying humans. To their dismay, he had failed almost every aspect, with the only exception being his green flame, which barely passed the average standard – another shame as compared to his mother’s, surpassing even hell fire. Even worse, he had even failed to see how essential these skills were to his long life ahead, his line of thinking crooked and foreign to a dragon. For instance, he had failed to see the purpose to hoard up gold in his lair; unlike humans, dragons had no need for precious metals, and guarding a great treasure only guaranteed the attention of those greedy crawlers. Hadn’t his great-grandfather been decimated by a so-called hero, who had then bathed in his blood to steal his powers? Hadn’t his mother been close to death a dozen times trying to protect both the treasure and her children against humans? Why did they have to make life so hard for themselves, Siegfried had wondered, and made a grave mistake of voicing his thought. Unable to straighten his thinking after a while, his few sympathizers had given up on him, going back to giving him icy glares.

Dragons in general were cold-blooded creatures, which was a fascinating paradox considering they could breathe fire from their throats and slumber on a bed of lava. Familial love and such seemed transient and pale in comparison to strength and territory. Tales of dragons devouring their younglings or young dragons feeding on the flesh of their parents were not unheard of. During his first years, Siegfried had been living under constant fear that one day his mother would be fed up with an anomaly like him and get rid of the eyesore in one swift bite. He could only thank God when it finally happened, his mother had only cast him out of her lair instead of making a quick meal out of her son.

Siegfried had woken up one humid morning to a steel-grey sky, which was already bad omen to dragons in general. Looking up to shapeless patches of clouds, he felt a sense of dread filling his heart. Dragons were considered magical beasts, and one of their innate abilities was being very in tune with the flow of nature, one a hybrid like Siegfried was lucky to not have lost. It had been later confirmed when his mother just wordlessly grabbed him with her claws. In fear of invoking her wrath he had not dare to ask. He gritted his teeth, feeling his little heart jumping to his throat. To north she had flown, over vast forests and winding rivers and rocky mountain ranges, until she had reached a faraway alien land. She had dropped him in a woods with a few crisp words that he would be on his own from then on. It wasn’t until her gigantic figure had become a small dot in the sky had the bitter realization sunk in his brain: his mother had severed their slim blood tie and banished him from her lair, and should he ever step into her territory, he would undoubtedly face her flame.

A normal flame would never harm a dragon. A dragon’s flame, however, was another story.

Looking at the strange nubiferous sky and then at the unfamiliar surroundings, Siegfried had had suppressed both tears and a sigh of relief.

_To be continued_


	2. Part 2

Two days had passed like a short dream since his mother left him on his own. At this moment, Siegfried was crouching in front of a cave he had found by chance. To call it a cave was being over-generous, for it was just a little bigger than a hole in the rock, too cramped and too damp for a dragon to occupy so Siegfried knew he would soon have to find another cave, wider, drier and having enough space for a growing dragon hybrid to stretch his limbs, provided that he could survive this environment. He hadn’t figured out the climate in this land but two things were pretty clear: one, the climate was vastly different from where he had lived, judging by the botanical life; and two, it was in winter, judging by the snow blanketing the landscape.

For dragons, snow was bad news; even the strongest of them wouldn’t fare so well in the dipping temperatures. Every seasoned dragon hunter should know they would never find a single dragon in regions where snow, together with the biting cold, accompanied winter. And that was exactly where his mother had dropped him – an area where winter was reigning and the sterile white of snow and ice was dominating the color palette. It pricked his heart to be reminded of his mother’s animosity toward his existence even when they had parted and would likely never see each other again.

Nonetheless, a metaphorical prick in the heart wouldn’t kill him right away, but hunger would. For two days he had only had a meal, and it had been meager at best – a skinny hare that had lost its way and died in the snow. The animals here were far too skilled in hiding from him than him at hunting them. At this time, with his stomach groaning audibly, Siegfried couldn’t help chiding himself for being such a failure of his kind, hailed as the emperors of all predators. His mother and kin had had every right to detest him and cast him aside.

As if self-deprecation could fill his belly than he would gladly do it on a daily basis. The thing was, it couldn’t, so Siegfried just mentally heaved a little sigh. Clenching his stomach so that it almost touched his spine, he took in as much air as his lungs allowed. Then he let out a breath of fire on the ice surface beneath his bare feet. Yesterday he had made a discovery that there was a pond in front of his little dwelling, only that it had been frozen. It had sparked some hope in him that there might be some fish he could catch, and the young dragon had been trying to melt the layer of ice.

Several cracks appearing on the mirror-smooth surface brought a wide grin to Siegfried’s face, so wide it actually hurt. Yet his joy was relatively short-lived. That he himself was standing on thin ice hadn’t crossed his mind until it was too late: the ice under him gave in to the heat of the flame and Siegfried’s weight, and with a loud yelp, the young dragon was dumped into the freezing water.

While the threat of drowning was non-existent as the water level only reached his waist, he could die of the chill before he counted to twenty. His luck truly was out of this world, thought Siegfried as he fished himself out of water, his small body shivering violently like a hushed leaf in the autumnal wind. He coughed dryly, the feeble flame immediately extinguished once it left his mouth. There was frost in his nostrils, making his breathing a laborious and hurtful task. His heart thumped arrhythmically against his rib cages.

He wanted to cry, tears hotly brimming the rims of his eyes. They didn’t roll down his cheeks however, as he bit his lips so hard to restrain them he tasted copper on his tongue. He no longer had a mother to cry to, not that he had ever had, and crying now only served to exhaust him quicker and push him one step closer to imminent death.

So deeply wallowing in his troubles that Siegfried hadn’t picked up the light footsteps approaching him.

“Hey, are you okay?”

A voice had severed his wrecked train of thought and caused all the scales on his body to rise. His first instinct was to scramble back but the muscles in his legs had become rigid, and so the sudden momentum resulted in him falling on his bottom. Great, now even his butt was numb.

“Are you okay?” the voice repeated with more concern.

The first thing came into Siegfried’s sight was a pair of feet clad in brown leather boots with some sort of fur lining their necks. The young dragon looked up in curiosity and examined the speaker. His guard dropped a little.

It was a human standing in front of him. Although Siegfried hadn’t truly encountered a human in his short life, he had seen enough to make a speculation on the age: this one wasn’t a mature specimen and by its height and look, Siegfried could speculate that it was around the same age as him in dragon years. The gender was harder to guess though, the round, soft face with huge eyes and pink lips constituting a sense of androgyny. Siegfried had heard that a human’s appearance didn’t always denote the gender, especially the young ones – _children_ in their language. What terribly strange creatures they were.

A human child was unlikely to pose any threat to him and even if he did, Siegfried could at least manage an escape. Nonetheless, he wasn’t too naive to not consider the possibility that this child was not alone. The adults might be lurking around, waiting to launch a surprise attack. He eyed the human child warily, his wings flapping in slow motion to shake the frost off the skin and help the blood circulation. He prepared himself to take off any moment.

“You’re shivering,” the child asked. “You’re cold, aren’t you?”

To Siegfried’s bafflement, the child squatted down, his red, extra-fluffy cloak pooling around his feet and making a stark contrast with the snow-covered ground. The color was striking, and Siegfried was reminded of his mother’s mighty red flame.

Cautiously the young dragon dragged his foot a few inches back when it was almost touched by the glaring red cloak as if he was afraid it would singe his bare skin. It was absurd, even he was aware, but it seemed his subconsciousness was one step ahead of his rational thinking. “Isn’t it obvious?” Siegfried scowled, trying to sound intimating despite his teeth clattering. His effort apparently failed because the human child’s big pale eyes blinked at him, unfazed.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Siegfried’s voice had lost a great deal of the strength he pretended to have, leaving it a denouncement of his current miserable state: starving, freezing and absolutely vulnerable. Even the flimsy hope that the child would be scared away by his appearance had vaporized as fast as the breaths leaving his chapped lips.

The child blinked again – it seemed to be a habit more than anything, and extended his hand to touch Siegfried by his cheek. His first instinct was to squat the hand, but the warmth from the skin uncovered by any fabric – odd, he thought – was so tempting that instead of backing off, Siegfried leaned in, even nuzzling his cheek against the palm, giving no thought about the small patch of scales near his eyes scratching the child’s silky skin. It was funny how the child’s hand was so warm despite it had probably been out in the cold for a while, but again he couldn’t say he possess much knowledge about humankind. It could be attributed to humans being hot-blooded though.

Later Siegfried would be mortified to learn that his reaction was typical of an animal receiving a common affectionate gesture from its owner known as “petting”. Karna, the child – a male one, or _boy_ in human language, was quick to assure him that it wasn’t petting but Siegfried was stubbornly unconvinced.

Karna tilted his head slightly as his hand moved from Siegfried’s cheek up until it touched the silver mane, small, nimble fingers tangled with unkempt locks. His face sported an inquisitive look as he stated matter-of-factly, “You have ears just like me, and your skin, for the most part, feels soft. But you also have horns and scales and wings, and your eyes are slit and glowing...”

Growing impatient with the child’s description of him, Siegfried growled and caught both his hands which were attempting to reach Siegfried’s horns. Horns were a dragon’s pride and he, despite being only a disappointment of a dragon, would be damned before he allowed a puny human to play with them.

Surprise dominated Karna’s features but for a few seconds before that was soon transformed into a precocious look unbefitting his age. “You don’t like your horns being touched, I get it. I won’t.”

“Shouldn’t you be afraid of me?”

It was as clear as daylight the human wasn’t.

“Why should I be?” Karna replied, blinking again. “You don’t look a threat to me.”

“I’m a dragon,” Siegfried snarled, trying to show his tiny fangs, which he never knew could be considered ‘cute’ by some humans. This child’s fearlessness was irking him. “I can crisp you or devour you or tear you apart. Or do all three at the same time.”

“You can breathe fire?” Karna asked with a gleeful tone, Siegfried’s threat likely censored to his hearing. “Show me, show me.”

 _What’s wrong with this one?_ This was nothing like what his kin had told him about the humans. Humans, in spite of being small and weak, were extremely cautious and cunning, and they would unlikely approach a dragon with such bizarre audacity this child had been displaying.

He wouldn’t admit he was motivated by the absurd need to prove himself to a puny human. As a dragon, he had a pride to keep, even if that meant he had to grant a childish request. He sucked in a cold breath and slowly breathed out, his mind summoning the flame from within his core as he felt the heat spreading through his chest, getting more intense by the second. _That’s it_. He opened his mouth wide to release a dragon’s fury. Nonetheless, instead of a flame, what he had was an embarrassingly feeble puff of smoke.

“That’s smoke, not fire.”

This child might have a habit of stating the obvious.

“I’m hungry, alright?” Siegfried petulantly rebuked, the smooth patches of skin on his cheeks reddening.

And freezing and exhausted and frustrated and alone. The list went on and on.

Karna wordlessly untied the bow under his chin and took off his fiery red cloak. He then draped the cloak around Siegfried’s shivering shoulders and meticulously tied the knot. Siegfried instantly felt the familiar warmth that had once nurtured him, protected him, lulled him into sleep before his egg hatched and he was flung to the cruel, cruel world. Moreover, the warmth didn’t come from the thick fabric alone but there were traces of magecraft intricately woven into each thread making up the garment. They were very faint but he could detect them nonetheless, being a species sensitive to all sorts of magic. This discovery made him see this human child in a total new light. Could it be that he came from a family of sorcerers? That seemed a possibility since he didn’t shy away from making contact with a dragon hybrid as a normal human kid should. Could it be that his family was nearby, hunting rare beasts?

The thought of fleeing rose again, but his legs were still numb and clumsy and the warmth was irresistible. He doubted he would make it very far in a chase.

“My name is Karna. What is yours?” the child asked.

Such a strange name. But again, Siegfried had landed on a strange land.

“Why should I tell a human my name?”

A dragon’s name was a key to ride them, a condition for submission, and he would not give it up so easily.

The child blinked, his lower lip slightly sticking out in a pout. “But I tell you my name.”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

Siegfried was very pleased with himself for such a smart rebuttal, even more so by Karna’s tears swelling up in his winter-blue eyes.

He didn’t let them fall, however; instead, he put the punnet he’d been carrying since he met Siegfried on the snow-covered ground. He unwrapped the cloth on the top and steam rose, together with an enticing aroma that had Siegfried’s stomach growling like a beast on its own right and his mouth watering. The dragon hybrid had no idea what was inside the punnet; he just knew that it had to be food and right now food was what he needed the most.

“I’ll give you one if you tell me your name, maybe two,” Karna said, holding a soft-looking oval-shaped piece of dough that Siegfried wasn’t sure what it was exactly but it smelled good enough to make him drool. Then, Karna’s condition sank in and his insides got a jab. Humans were wicked and cunning creatures; they wouldn’t give you something without expecting something else in return. Even a child was no exception. See how quick he was to take advantage of Siegfried’s state and strike a bargain? But no, Siegfried wouldn’t fall for this trick, tempting as that might appear. Besides, what good was that steaming brown piece of dough anyway aside from the smell? If only Siegfried could catch some fish then he would be fine.

The young dragon firmly shook his head.

“A pity,” Karna sighed. “Then you won’t complain if I call you ‘Hornie’, right? Because of the horns.”

Siegfried huffed, earning himself a chuckle from the human. He certainly didn’t expect Karna to thrust that piece of dough into his hand. “I’ll give it to you even if you refuse to tell me your name. I can’t eat that much anyway.”

“What is this?”

Karna’s eyes widened. “Oh, you don’t know what it is? It’s a bun, freshly baked. Our baker Mikael puts in some hazelnuts for extra-crunchiness. It’s delicious. You should try it.”

“What is a baker?”

“You don’t know what a baker is? He’s the one to bake bread and other delicious cakes and pastries.”

Siegfried eyed the thing in his palm with suspicion. Should he consume it? It could be poisoned or laced with some tranquilizing potion to subdue and capture him – such tales were not unheard of. But he was so famished he would perish without having food anyway, probably even faster than being poisoned. In the end, his hunger triumphed over his paranoid thoughts and he took a large bite. The outer crust was slightly crunchy and filled his mouth with a nutty flavor, which Siegfried was surprised to find not all that bad. The flesh inside was warm and fluffy and left a lingering sweetness at the back of his tongue even when he had swallowed the bite. He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten something warm and soft; his daily meals had always been cold and chewy since most of the fleshy parts had been consumed by his siblings, leaving only the bones with bits of sinews and charred meat clinging to them. On a lucky day, he could break the bones and suck the marrow but those days had been few and far between. With such a diet it was no wonder he had been undergrown. With tears blurring his vision, he swallowed the rest of the bun.

“I have more if you’re still hungry,” Karna said, offering yet another steaming bun. He must have noticed the wetness in Siegfried’s eyes.

Siegfried wordlessly wolfed down the bun and the next, and the next. By the time his stomach was relatively full and his hunger had been pushed back to a safe distance, he had consumed nearly everything in Karna’s punnet, leaving only two smaller buns, one small apple and a couple red berries.

“Wow, you’re such a big eater,” Karna exclaimed with genuine admiration. “You’re going to grow up very big and strong. That’s what my nanny often says.”

Siegfried huffed. He didn’t believe a word from this human child. He had always been the runt of the litter and his siblings, well fed and cared, had been growing much bigger than him. Moreover, given his hybrid nature, he would never surpass them in size and strength.

But, even so, he would grow up to be bigger than an average human being, that was no doubt. Take this Karna child for example. Judging by his look, he appeared to be given enough food to eat, and yet his height was inferior to Siegfried, malnourished and undergrown. As if to prove the theory going inside his head, the dragon stood up straight, towering over the squatting human child. The loose knot came undone and the cloak slipped from his shoulders to bundle at his bare feet. With the warm food nestling in his belly, Siegfried found a new energy flowing through his limbs, washing off two days’ fatigue; rapid recovery was a perk of being a dragon. His legs no longer felt so numb and his wings, creating small winds with their flapping, were ready to take flight.

He was ready to do just that when he suddenly felt his tail grabbed by a hand, causing him to shudder.

“Hey, don’t fly away yet.”

Siegfried turned around to a plump face whose notable features were eyes sparkling with moisture and lips forming a pout. Siegfried knew he shouldn’t feel that way, didn’t have to feel that way – after all he had begged for neither the cloak nor the food – but somehow despite his reasoning, he couldn’t help a feeling of guilt tugging his heart like that tiny soft hand tugging his tail.

Not letting go of Siegfried’s tail, Karna stood up and indeed, he was shorter than the dragon by a head.

“Don’t go away yet. It’s just... you’re the first kid who isn’t afraid of me and talk to me.”

Siegfried looked the child up and down. Again and again. He squinted his eyes and raked his dragon brain to find something remotely scary or freaky. He found none. What could possibly induce fear in this skinny little human? His androgynous face framed with white hair like a snow fox’s fur? His huge, trusting eyes showing no fear of a predator? His pale, unblemished skin? His small hands emitting only faint traces of magecraft? He looked entirely human, no mixed traits of another species. Siegfried didn’t get it.

“I’m not a kid,” Siegfried rebuked, choosing not to voice his other thoughts. “I’m not human so you don’t scare me.”

Karna’s eyes lit up as he beamed, squeezing Siegfried’s tail, eliciting a frustrated growl from the young dragon.

“Can we be friends?”

“No.”

Siegfried didn’t know what ‘friends’ meant but his instincts told him it was a human thing and if it was a human thing, the answer would be a crisp ‘no’.

“Please.”

“No.”

Once the second ‘no’ rolled off his tongue, Siegfried made another mistake (he seemed to have made one too many today): instead of just flying away like he had intended, he paused and waited for a response from the child. Why? He couldn’t fathom. What he got was a pair of watery eyes fixing on him as though he was the biggest, meanest bully in the world. There was no other times that he cursed his human part more than at the moment. Dragons were never seized by the grip of guilt; nor should any true dragons feel bad for bringing tears to a human child. Siegfried wished the same could be applied to him. Unfortunately, it was the opposite.

How those eyes reminded Siegfried of a dragon hybrid, weak and mistreated by his siblings and unable to seek protection from his mother. How many times had he himself looked at them with helpless tears in his eyes and earned not sympathetic but scornful glares?

“Don’t cry...” he said weakly, feeling the tears brimming at his eyes. The earlier determination had faded from his voice.

“I’m not crying.”

“There’s snot running from your nose.”

Karna sniffed. “I’m not,” he denied, stubbornly childish even when he was wiping his nose with a finger. “I’m going to have to travel deep into the woods to train with a mage there. But I’ll be back in a day. You will be here when I return, right?”

Siegfried really didn’t wish to argue with a human child, no more than he wished to see him weep. On the other hand, a dragon didn’t give their promises on a whim, for promises were a _géis_ to their species. He told himself to keep his mouth shut with a thin hope that the child would be put off by his silence and give up. Humans were easily discouraged, or so he had heard.

Unfortunately, this peculiar child took his silence for agreement and squeezed his tail, making Siegfried jump with a surge of pain. Growling, Siegfried snatched his tail back with more force than necessary.

“I’m sorry,” Karna said sheepishly. “I’m going now. See you later.”

As he went up the trail ahead, Karna kept waving at Siegfried until he became a small dot and disappeared.

He didn’t make promise to not leave here and wait for Karna, Siegfried told himself, but it wasn’t like he had somewhere else to go, being a stranger to this vast land. The cave would shelter him and maybe the fish in the stream would fill his belly for a while. The thought of food made him unconsciously lick his lips, reminiscent of the warm, fluffy texture of the buns. Maybe if he stayed here, he could have another chance to eat them, and he would take his time to savor the taste.

And...

It seemed Karna had forgotten his cloak. Hadn’t he felt cold? Strange. Siegfried picked up the cloak and draped it over his shoulders, feeling the hum of energy dancing across his skin, fighting off the chill.

_To be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

Siegfried had made no promise to the child named Karna and so far he’d been sticking to it. The fact that he hadn’t left this claustrophobia-inducing cave had nothing to do with it. After Karna’s leave, he continued to try his luck with the fish and surprisingly, he was met with success. The layer of ice had broken due to his fall earlier and indeed there were some fish – small and undoubtedly bony but still better than no food. A growing dragon had a matching appetite and he soon found himself craving for something to chew again, despite the buns. Perhaps either the frigid water or their naïve belief in the protection from the ice had made the fish sluggish and careless that with only a couple whips of his tail, he had his first catch of the day. This he had learnt from the bears, and while the bears used their front limbs, he couldn’t use his hands in the same manner. The threat of getting frostbite was palpable, so his tail, completely covered in hard scales and thus immune to frost and ice, came in handy. A dragon never got frostbite, nor did they have soft, smooth skin, but given his unnatural nature, he couldn’t be too careful. Years of watching out for himself had taught him that much.

“One, two, three...” Siegfried counted aloud and inhaled deeply to fill his lungs with air. The chill gave him a minor pain when doing so but it was endurable. Much better than hunger anyway. Delight bloomed in his heart to feel a familiar heat from the depth of his throat and soon, a fire stronger than he’d ever been able to produce came out. To think a full belly (first time in his life!) could yield such marvelous result. He was suddenly hit with the childish urge to compare his fire with his siblings’ and in a brief condescending moment, he allowed himself an imaginary victory. If this was his potential than he could hope to match his mother someday.

Alas, his upbeat mood lasted about as long as a sheet of paper in the fireplace. The fish was small so it couldn’t withstand the sheer direct heat of his fire. What Siegfried had in his hand was a piece of charcoal shaped in the form of a fish, which crumbled immediately once he touched it. He stared at his supposed meal until his eyes bulged out, wondering what could have possibly gone wrong. Feeling sorry for this creature which had lost its life to him and his own effort poured in catching it, he tried a bite. His eyebrows knitted due to the unpalatable assault on his tongue and now he had discovered the texture and flavor of charcoal and would be sure to learn both by heart. Clearly entirely inedible. He came to a disheartening realization that both the fish’s life and his effort would be wasted by his own clumsiness. Siegfried understood that he should adjust his flame but had no idea how to do it right, having never done it before. Back in his days at the lair, he had only scraped up the leftovers of his siblings, which were already roasted by his mother’s flame. They had been living atop a mountain peak, where food was horribly scarce and the chance of him finding any food up there had been none. So, zero experience in the field of roasting food.

Picking up another fish, the smallest one so that even if he spoiled, it wouldn’t be such a big waste like his first failure, Siegfried took in a moderate gulp of air. The air should be the key – the less he inhaled, the weaker the fire, and though there was no ground to back up his deduction, he should give it a try, seeing he had no better choice. Gently, carefully, he blew at the fish. The flame wasn’t as strong as before, just like he wished; however, it was merely strong enough to singe the fish’s skin and fins while the flesh remained bloody raw. He grunted and blew harder, converting his frustration into the heat. It seemed Fate decided this was the right moment to sprinkle in a bit of her good humor, because all of sudden he felt something tickle his nostrils. Naturally, he sneezed. Just a sneeze, should be nothing big, right? Except it was a dragon’s sneeze, which took the form of a burst of flame. Speechless, Siegfried gawked at his hand. What he was holding was yet another charred, inedible failure ready to be tossed away. His stomach loudly complained.

In later years, whenever he took the time to reflect upon his strange relationship with Karna, Siegfried would be reminded of how often Karna had found him in a situation where he was embarrassing himself by showing his incompetence at being a dragon, a fact that he always found vexing. Had to be his luck. First was him landing into a pond and almost freezing arse off (quite literally) and now it was him burning his limited shortage of food in the name of cooking his meal.

It wasn’t his footsteps – for they were creepily soundless – that alerted Siegfried; it was his chuckles, followed by his voice, “You can build a fire if you want to grill the fish without burning them. It’s so simple even a kid like me can do it. Let me show you.”

Agitated, Siegfried barked, “Who needs the human way when I can do it just fine the dragon way?”

“But you’re burning them. At this rate you may not have much to eat.”

“I’m testing them,” Siegfried stubbornly rebuked, whipping his head around. “And it’s none of your business–... What’s wrong with you?”

He abruptly changed the subject once he saw Karna, looking significantly worse than he had been earlier. The child was leaning against a rough-looking trunk with his right hand clutching a low branch. His face was paler than the snow under his boots, making a stark contrast with the red makeup around his lower eyelids (Siegfried only noticed it now), his huge eyes were clouded, and in spite of the weather, there were traces of perspiration clinging to his temples. That wasn’t the worst part, though. The reason for his sweats to be visible to the naked eyes despite his complexion was because they possessed a tinge of pink, which grew a shade darker as they rolled down his temples to his chin. The color pink, normally so lovely to Siegfried since it was a wild flower he so loved, gave him a queasy feeling in his stomach, especially when it was accompanied by the scent of metal, iron to be exactly. There was something really wrong with the child, and even though he rationalized that whatever had put Karna in such miserable state was none of his business, his tongue thought otherwise.

“It’s nothing, really,” Karna replied.

“It’s not nothing.” Curse his tongue for acting on its own again. “You look half-dead.”

He didn’t understand what it meant to be ‘half-dead’; he only knew ‘dead’ and ‘alive’, clear as white and black. Somehow such ambiguous word managed to wedge its way into his speech. A proof that it was entirely his tongue’s doing.

“It’s normal training for me,” spoke Karna weakly. “The mage, no, my mentor is usually very strict. It’s for my own good, he says. He actually went easy on me today.”

“Tch, mages,” Siegfried mumbled with disdain. The most wretched of the wretched mankind. They would do anything to gain more powers even if it endangered their life.

That meant, this human child too...

“Are you training to become a mage?”

Karna, who had sat down under the tree since his quivering legs couldn’t bear standing anymore, had a startled look manifesting on his features. Perhaps he hadn’t anticipated a question. Perhaps he hadn’t expected this sort of question from a child of his age. His pearly teeth worried his bottom lip until it was red as a strawberry. “I... I don’t know,” he hesitated. “It may be what they want me to become, but they never really tell me anything. They say I have to go train with him and so I do. If I don’t, they will get very upset, and it scares me when they get upset.”

Siegfried was ready to mock any answer from Karna, and when he got it, all he had for response was a prolonged silence. This sounded like an echo of a recent past. His past. Left tattered at his mother’s talons when she abandoned him. Born an anomaly and growing up as one, he had been hyper-aware of his own differences and his potential to be a disappointment. Thus, he had been holding his breath in a constant fear that he might do something wrong to enrage his mother and his kin. A scared and clueless little hybrid, who had learned too slowly that it was what he _was_ rather than what he _did_ that had bred hatred into his kin’s hearts.

“They?” The single word after a long pause was an echo of Karna’s own word.

“My... caretaker.”

Siegfried decided not to dwell into the matter regarding his ‘caretaker’ and why he didn’t mentioned his parents. He took off Karna’s cloak and tossed it to the boy, eliciting a surprised yelp. “You’re shaking. Must be cold. There, I give your cloak back.”

“I’m not cold, so you keep it. You seem to need it more than me.”

That was true. Soon as it departed from his skin, Siegfried’s body was immediately invaded by the chill. But he would rather die than admit it to a human brat. His frame began to shake.

“I don’t need it.”

Without a word, Karna took the coat to Siegfried’s side and sat down, draping the cloak over both of them. Their bodies were close enough Siegfried could feel the human heat and scent radiating from Karna. He smelled like sunshine on fresh meadows. How strange it was to have a summer scent when it was in the middle of winter. Karna probably could feel his hard scales too. Did he not mind them since his skin was so tender, so prone to scratches?

“There, we’ll both be warm.”

“If you felt cold, you shouldn’t have given your cloak like that,” Siegfried chided, feeling the tips of ears heating.

“I’m not feeling so cold, so it’s fine without it. Weren’t you trying to grill the fish? I know how to build a fire. First you need something to keep the fire burning. It’ll die out soon no matter how strong it is.”

Siegfried watched Karna gather small branches around their feet. There were a lot on the ground. Siegfried hadn’t paid them any attention until now; dragons had no need for them.

“They should be dry or else they won’t burn,” Karna continued. “Lucky us, they are. There, some fire, please.”

“To these?”

“Yes.”

Siegfried didn’t quite grasp Karna’s intention but he saw no harm in obliging him. He blew as carefully as he could; the last he needed was an outburst, which could harm the fragile human by his side.

The branches quickly caught fire and soon they were burning.

The young dragon stared at the fire, deeply enthralled by its erratic yet mesmerizing dance. Dragons and fire shared a unique bond that no other species on earth could comprehend. To them, even the humans who arrogantly claimed to ‘tame’ it, fire was a greatest destructive force of nature whose presence they fled from. Ever seen a beast approaching the flame? However, fire was the essence of a dragon’s soul, and when a dragon perished, he breathed his last fire before his soul extinguished.

Siegfried wasn’t the only one hypnotized by the flame; his only companion appeared to be also. Gingerly he extended his hand toward the flame as if it was a substance with shape and texture to be touched or held. And he would have been licked by the flame if Siegfried hadn’t caught his wrist in time. Didn’t this human child possess any common sense? Even if that was the case, shouldn’t his instinct have indicated fire was danger? Every creature’s should, as far as Siegfried could tell. “Don’t know it could burn you badly?” the dragon hybrid grunted, frustrated with Karna’s several oddities he had displayed. Siegfried couldn’t say if it was how humans acted, having interacted with only one so far, or Karna was being a peculiar case; he just knew there was an unsettling feeling in his stomach that couldn’t be shaken off.

“I’m sorry,” said Karna. “It was so beautiful I couldn’t help myself.”

“Other creatures won’t agree.”

“I’m special and I like it,” Karna replied with a childish pride. “But you like the flame, don’t you?”

“I’m a dragon and fire can’t harm me.”

“Should I not like something that jeopardizes my safety?”

Siegfried shrugged. Was that a rhetorical question?

“Huhm...”

Karna poked the fire with a branch while wearing a contemplative look, probably digesting the matter. “Well,” he began after a while, “if it’s how logic goes than I shouldn’t be get close to you. You said earlier that you could eat me and I knew you could because dragons eat humans, my caretakers often say. But–”

His untimely pause was followed by a wide grin. “But I like you a lot.”

Siegfried scoffed.

“I’m telling the truth,” Karna retorted.

“Whatever,” Siegfried said, trying to keep a nonchalant tone. In his head he had denied for the tenth time what Karna didn’t mean a thing to him. He never knew the tips of his ears had gone red, and Karna might have already seen it. “The fish...” he muttered, changing the subject so abruptly he surprised himself.

Karna blinked. “The fish?” he echoed, confused. “Oh right, sorry. You must be really hungry.”

Aren’t you? Siegfried thought. The sun rays were dying, which meant it was about time for supper.

Karna grabbed a smaller branch and swiftly impaled the fish with it. Perfectly from head to tail. He then held it over the fire, turning the fish every few seconds. “You try it too,” he encouraged.

Siegfried regarded the fish being cooked on the fight with dubiety before imitating Karna. Still, his technique was far inferior to Karna’s and when he held the fish over the fire, it slipped right off.

“Don’t laugh,” Siegfried growled.

“OK, I won’t,” Karna answered with his half-hearted attempt to muffle his coming giggles. “One, two, three... you have fives fish, not counting the one you just fed the flame.”

Siegfried have him a sully look. This human way wasn’t going too well for him either. Maybe the next time he caught something, he’d eat it raw and save himself the hassle. That sounded alright; he would just have to learn to adapt to digesting raw food.

“There, it’s good,” Karna said, giving him a fish, whose skin had turned a golden brown and was giving an enticing aroma entirely different from the pungent smell of charcoal. His mouth watered and his stomach grumbled, urging him to appeasing its need. He took half a fish in a single bite and experienced the taste of flesh-water fish for the first time in his life. Different than meat but delectable nonetheless. He wouldn’t mind adding fish to his diet.

Finish the fish with record speed, Siegfried examined his remaining fish and after some consideration, he chose the biggest one and impaled it on a branch. It was big so the task went much smoother. He handed it to Karna – more like shoved it into his hand. “This one’s for you.”

“Me? But I’m not too hungry.”

“Not too hungry means you’re hungry and I don’t want to owe anything to a human.”

A dumbfounded look was what Siegfried got as a reply.

“You gave me your food earlier so now I’m sharing mine with you,” Siegfried said. “With this we’re even.”

“Umu.”

Siegfried failed to comprehend just how a fish could make a kid happy but Karna was beaming so brightly that he was envious of him. Smiles had been scarce in his life, and he didn’t find a lot of reasons to be happy. On the other hand there was something truly appealing in that kid’s smiles that immediately dissolved the envy in his heart and filled it with fluffy warmth. He was determined to find out what it was someday.

Wait, did that mean he intended to meet Karna again? He didn’t abhor the notion as he should but still...

...

By the time they finished all the fish and stood up with their bellies full, the sky was a purple hue. Darkness would soon come engulfing the land.

“I should be going home now,” Karna said, dusting the snow off his clothes. “I’ll be back a couple days later. Can I find you here?”

Siegfried had been thinking about searching for a bigger cave but it wasn’t like he would find it in a day or two. “I’m not moving anywhere. Not in a few days at least.”

“Great. Next time I’ll bring more buns with the special jams Nan makes. You’ll love it.”

“Are you... alright coming back by yourself?” Siegfried hesitated, looking at the trail ahead. When darkness fell, it was hunting time for predators.

Karma beamed, puffing his small chest. “I know the trails in this wood by heart and I can take care of myself, but thank you.”

Siegfried looked away, embarrassed. “It’s not like I’m going to escort you or anything...”

He might know the ways around here a lot less than Karna.

“See you,” Karna said, waving his hand as he walked into the trail.

...

Curling up inside his cave that night, Siegfried didn’t have a good sleep. He had a weird dream of watching a pack of wolves devouring something. He couldn’t see what it was but the crunching noises were loud and unnerving. And then there were turfs of white hairs and pieces of red fabric on the ground which looked disturbingly familiar to him.

_To be continued_


End file.
